The Götterdämmerung

For both when the end came, it wasn't pretty:

1. They both believed in a scorched earth policy when they lost:

   • Trump refused to initiate the orderly transfer of power.

     • When asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, he replied "Well, we’ll have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster . . . Get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very, you’ll have a very peaceful, there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation.” - CNBC, Sep 23, 2020

     • "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration." - Mike Pompeo, Nov 10, 2020

     • The administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA)  refused to ascertain Joe Biden had won the election until Nov 23, 2021, and therefore delayed transition planning by 18 days.

       • Barack Obama's administrator of the GSA ascertained that Trump won the 2016 Presidential election on Nov 9, 2016, the day after he was elected.  

     • Trump refused to meet with President-elect Biden. 

   • Hitler ordered the Nero Decree be executed on March 19, 1945; ordering the complete destruction of German infrastructure to prevent its use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany. It was officially titled Decree Concerning Demolitions in the Reich Territory and has subsequently become known as the Nero Decree, after the Roman Emperor Nero, who supposedly engineered the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. The decree was deliberately disobeyed by Albert Speer.

     • Hitler told Albert Speer, “If the war is lost, the people will be lost also. It is not necessary to worry about what the German people will need for elemental survival. On the contrary, it is best for us to destroy even these things. For the nation has proved to be the weaker, and the future belongs solely to the stronger eastern nations. In any case, only those who are inferior will remain after this struggle, for the good have already been killed.” - Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

     • Hitler is quoted as "it is not necessary to worry about their [the German people’s] needs for elemental survival." - Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth

2. They both had trouble recognizing when it was over: 

   • Trump refused to admit defeat in the 2020 presidential election and sent his sycophants (see The Disciples) out to challenge the results of the election. In a badly managed legal battle his every effort was rejected by court after court, with 61 out of 62  of the lawsuits failing miserably. Many of the judges handing down these decisions were appointed by Trump, with the Supreme Court refusing to hear any of the cases that Trump's sycophants brought. His personal lawyer Sidney Powell subsequently claimed that in regards to all the statements about election fraud "No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly [sic] statements of fact". His other personal lawyer Rudy Guliani, at a press conference at the Four Seasons Landscaping Company, invited a convicted sex offender to speak and in a subsequent press conference cited My Cousin Vinny as a legal argument while hair dye ran down both sides of his face. 

   • Hitler, after being completely surrounded by the Red Army, ordered his sycophant generals to have non-existent armies (with non-existent tanks and non-existent planes) to use non-existent reserves to make attacks to liberate Berlin.

3.  A political opportunist at the very end did what little he could to save the country

   • Trump's good friend Lindsey Graham on Jan 06, 2021, acknowledged that Joe Biden was legally elected president when he said "All I can say is a count me out. Enough is enough. I’ve tried to be helpful, but when this Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled four to three, that they didn’t violate the constitution of Wisconsin, I agree with the three, but I accept the four. If Al Gore could accept five-four he’s not president, I can accept Wisconsin four to three." - Transcript of Graham's speech on the floor of the Senate. 

   • Hitler's good friend Albert Speer, refused to carry out the above Nero Decree, saving millions of German civilians' lives.  

4. They both made last-minute appointments that were meaningless:

   • Trump appointed: 

     • Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie Henry Dreifus, Robert McMahon, Cory Mills, Bill Bruner, Christopher Shank, Joseph Schmidt, Keary Miller, Alan Weh, and Earl Matthews to the Pentagon’s Defense Business Board on Dec 04, 2020. They were dismissed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Feb 02, 2021.

     • Robert Reilly (who has stated “sodomitical marriage” — is “an act of injustice”) as the Director of Voice of America and Elizabeth Robbins as his deputy. President Joesph Biden fired them both on Jan 21, 2021.

     • Victoria Coates on Dec 22, 2020, to run the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. President Biden fired her on Jan 212021.

     • Roger Sevrino in January 2021 to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States. On Feb 3, 2021, he was fired by President Joseph Biden. 

   • Hitler appointed: 

     • Joseph Goebbels on Apr 30, 1945, to be Challenclor of the German Reich (after Hitler committed suicide). On May 01, 1945, Goebbels and his wife Magda killed their six children (ages 5-13) and then committed suicide.

     • Karl Dönitz on Apr 30, 1945, to be President of the German Reich. On May 07, 1945 Dönitz instructed General Alfred Jodl to sign the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the War in Europe (on May 8, 11:01 Central Eur0pean Time). 

     • Robert Ritter von Greim on Apr 26, 1945 to replace Hermann Göring as Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. On 8 May, the same day as the surrender of Germany, Greim was captured by American troops in Austria. His initial statement to his captors was reportedly "I am the head of the Luftwaffe, but I have no Luftwaffe".  He committed suicide on May 24, 1945. 

     • Ferdinand Schörner on Apr 30, 1945, to be Supreme Commander of the German Army (succeeding Hitler). On May 08, 1945 the German Army surrendered. He spent the next 15 years in jail and died in 1973. 

     • Karl Hanke on April 29, 1945, to be Reichsführer-SS. He was killed on May 06, 1945, by Czech partisans. 

5. They both did not attend the inauguration of their successor: 

   • Trump departed the White House hours before Joesph Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, flew to his residence in Florida, and was subsequently seen playing golf (he does not walk the course) and wearing a ballcap.

     • The last president not to attend his successor's inauguration was Andrew Johnson. 

       • Note: Trump and Andrew Johnson also share the distinction of being impeached.    

   • Hitler and his new bride committed suicide and therefore he could not see Joseph Goebbels become Reich Chancellor.    

6. They both were filled with self-pity:

   • Trump: 

     • "I shouldn’t joke because you know what? Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say ‘I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.’ I'm not going to feel so good, maybe I will have to leave the country, I don’t know." Trump, Oct 17, 2020

     • "It sort of is curious . . . a man works for us . . . and yet they're highly thought of and nobody likes me. It can only be my personality." Trump (referring to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci), July 28, 2020

     • "I think I was very unfairly treated," Trump (interview with Chris Wallace), July 19, 2020 

       • When asked by Wallace about the recusal by his then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, he stated “Now I feel good because he lost overwhelmingly in the great state of Alabama.” 

       • "Here’s the bottom line. I’ve been very unfairly treated, and I don’t say that as paranoid. I’ve been very – everybody says it. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. But there was tremendous evidence right now as to how unfairly treated I was."

   • Hitler:

     • “Everyone has lied to me, everyone has deceived me, no one has told me the truth. The armed forces have lied to me and now the SS has left me in the lurch. The German people have not fought heroically. It deserves to perish . . . It is not I who have lost the war, but the German people” Hitler, Apr 22, 1945

7. They both felt utterly betrayed by their disloyal sycophants when it was over:

1. • Trump felt betrayed when . . . 

     • Pence refused to do what Trump wanted, overturn the election results in his role as Senate president.

       • "I made this guy, I saved him from a political death and here he stabbed me in the back¹” - National Post, January 11, 2021

       • "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

     • Attorney General Barr stated, "He had not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election." 

       • When asked if he had confidence in Barr, Trump replied "a . . . ask me that in a number of weeks from now." - Trump, Dec 3, 2021 

       • Trump retweeted a  tweet from Todd Starnes stating "Attorney General Barr knew in the spring about the Biden investigation and kept it quiet -- he should be fired by the end of business today.", adding "A Big Disappointment" - Trump. Dec 12, 2020

       • Barr subsequently resigned on Dec 14, 2020, five weeks before the end of Trump's term. According to Trump "to spend the holidays with his family."

       • Barr subsequently stated "Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable, The President’s conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters.” - Ex-Attorney General William Barr, Jan 7, 2021

   • Hitler felt betrayed when . . .

     • Reichsmarschall Herman Gorring (Hitler's designated successor, Head of the Luftwaffe) who on April 23, 1945, after determining that Berlin was surrounded and therefore cut off from all other German military forces sent a carefully worded telegram to Hitler asking Hitler for permission to take over as the leader of Germany, stressing that he would be acting as Hitler's deputy. He added that, if Hitler did not reply by 22:00 that night (23 April), he would assume that Hitler had indeed lost his freedom of action, and would assume leadership of the Reich.  Hitler sent a reply to Göring threatening him with execution for high treason unless he immediately resigned from all of his offices. Göring duly resigned. Afterward, Hitler (or Martin Bormann, Nazi Party Secretary, depending on the source) ordered the SS to place Göring and his staff, under house arrest. Hitler subsequently expelled Göring from the party, formally rescinded the decree making him his successor, and upbraided Göring for "illegally attempting to seize control of the state." He then appointed Karl Dönitz, the Navy's commander-in-chief, as president of the Reich and commander-in-chief of the armed forces

     • Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Head of the Secret Police) who on April 23, met directly with the Head of the Swedish Red Cross, at the Swedish consulate in Lübeck. Representing himself as the provisional leader of Germany, he claimed that Hitler would be dead within the next few days. Hoping that the British and Americans would fight the Soviets alongside what remained of the Wehrmacht, Himmler asked Bernadotte to inform General Dwight Eisenhower that Germany wished to surrender to the Western Allies, and not to the Soviet Union. Bernadotte asked Himmler to put his proposal in writing, and Himmler obliged. 

On the evening of 28 April, the BBC broadcast a Reuters news report about Himmler's attempted negotiations with the western Allies. Hitler had long considered Himmler to be second only to Joseph Goebbels in loyalty; he called Himmler "the loyal Heinrich" (German: der treue Heinrich). Hitler flew into a rage at this apparent betrayal and told those still with him in the bunker complex that Himmler's secret negotiations were the worst treachery he had ever known. Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest.

By this time, the Soviets had advanced to the Potsdamer Platz, only 300 m. from the Reich Chancellery, and were preparing to storm the Chancellery. This report, combined with Himmler's treachery, prompted Hitler to write his last will and testament. In the testament, completed on 29 April—one day prior to his suicide—Hitler declared both Himmler and Göring to be traitors. He stripped Himmler of all of his party and state offices and expelled him from the Nazi Party.

8. They both witnessed violence and death at the end of their regimes:

• Trump's regime ended with the Capitol Riot which resulted in the sacking of the U.S. Capitol and at least five deaths. 

  • This was the first time in history that the U.S. did not have a peaceful transfer of power.

• Hitler's regime ended with the Battle of Berlin and Hitler's suicide.   

"After the last notes of Götterdämmerung², I felt as though I had been let out of prison."

-Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The above painting is Vallhala on fire by Max Brückner, which was created as scenography for Act III of Twilight of the Gods from The Ring des Nibelungen performed in Bayreuth, Germany in 1896. 

¹ The stab-in-the-back myth was an antisemitic conspiracy theory, widely believed and promulgated in alt right-wing circles in Germany after 1918. The belief was that the German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield but was instead betrayed by the civilians on the home front, especially Jews, revolutionary socialists who fomented strikes and labor unrest, and other republican politicians who had overthrown the Hohenzollern monarchy in the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Advocates of the myth denounced the German government leaders who had signed the Armistice on 11 November 1918 as the "November criminals". 

When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, they made the legend an integral part of their official history of the 1920s, portraying the Weimar Republic as the work of the "November criminals" who had "stabbed the nation in the back" in order to seize power. The Nazi propaganda depicted Weimar as "a morass of corruption, degeneracy, national humiliation, ruthless persecution of the honest 'national opposition'—fourteen years of rule by Jews, Marxists, and 'cultural Bolsheviks', who had at last been swept away by the National Socialist movement under Hitler and the victory of the 'national revolution' of 1933".[2]

Historians inside and outside Germany unanimously reject the myth, pointing out the German Army was out of reserves, was being overwhelmed by the entrance of the United States into the war, and by late 1918 had lost the war militarily.

² Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), WWV 86D, was composed by Richard Wagner, Hitler's favorite composer. It is a cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or The Ring for short) and received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the Ring.

Götterdämmerung is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world. However, as with the rest of the Ring, Wagner's account diverges significantly from his Old Norse sources.

• Listen to it here: